The Internet and other digital communications networks continue to have significant effects on every aspect of personal and professional life. Network communications are becoming increasingly ubiquitous due to the reduced cost and increased capability of portable computing devices, as well as the increasing prevalence and capability of mobile telephony and other wireless communications technologies. Additionally, more and more devices, including set top boxes (STBs), television receivers, personal or digital video recorders (DVRs), placeshifting devices and the like are becoming enabled for communications over digital networks. Consumers are therefore expecting convenient control of their media content from a wide range of locations and settings.
Recently, consumers have expressed significant interest in “place shifting” devices that allow viewing of television or other media content at locations other than their primary television set. Place shifting devices typically packetize media content that can be transmitted over a local or wide area network to a portable computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, remote television or other remote device capable of playing back the packetized media stream for the viewer. Placeshifting therefore allows consumers to view their media content from remote locations such as other rooms, hotels, offices, and/or any other locations where portable media player devices can gain access to a wireless or other communications network.
As a result, it is now desirable to create systems and methods for expanding the capabilities of a placeshifting device to allow the user thereof to host a personalized television channel that is viewable to other users upon the permission of the host user. Such systems and methods would ideally provide a rich set of media information delivery and media control options that would be available from a wide array of client devices. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.